A mobile telephone incorporates a liquid crystal display to provide its user with information concerning the status of the telephone and a keypad including several “soft keys” and “call-handling keys” which are operable in various combinations to activate a large number of different functions.
As mobile telephones become more advanced, they are capable of performing more functions. For example, in addition to making a telephone call, it is now also possible to use a mobile telephone to send and receive e-mail messages and to access the internet. As a result, mobile telephones become more complicated to use as the number of different functions accessible using each soft key and/or call handling keys increases, as does the number of times that a particular key or series of keys must be pressed to perform a particular function. This makes the telephone much slower to operate and can make it confusing and more difficult to use. For example, when a user wishes to send an e-mail, they must first highlight the recipients name from a list of contacts and activate a key to call up a screen showing detailed contact information for the chosen recipient. The recipients e-mail address must then be highlighted and a key activated to display a menu of options, one of which is “send e-mail”. Selection of this option by activating a key displays a window with the recipients e-mail address. The user then composes their e-mail message in the same text string following the displayed e-mail address. When the message is complete, operation of a key displays a “send” option. If this option is selected, a prompt is given to enter a telephone number. The message can be sent following entry of the telephone number by operating another key. Therefore, in this example, the e-mail address becomes part of a text message (SMS). The message is sent to a server which views the text message, strips off the e-mail address and sends the message to the e-mail address. In another example, when a user wishes to send an e-mail, the option “write mail” must be highlighted from a list of e-mail related options and a key activated to display a “compose message” window. The user can then compose their message and activate a key to display a contact list from which they can select the chosen recipient. Once selected, the recipient's e-mail address is entered in the “To” box of the composed e-mail message.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing examples, that the procedure that must be followed to send an e-mail is time consuming and laborious as a relatively large number of different key presses are required in addition to those required to compose the message. Furthermore, in the second example, it is not possible to choose the message recipient and display their e-mail address in the “compose message” window before composing the message.